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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Markn" data-source="post: 5070062" data-attributes="member: 21827">During my current campaign, I have found the followinig tactic to be pretty effective:At major decision points in the campaign/story, particularly when the players are at odds on how to proceed to their goals, I often call for a break.  We summarize what the players know, which in turn gives me a chance to remind them of key info and then we talk about where they think things are heading at least from the players stand point.  Now this may mean just a campaign summary, but I then take it a step further and we explore what has developed for each character, what the major character change points have been and what motivations they may have.  I have been astounded by how much it makes the players reflect on everything.  During the discussion I jot down notes of things that are worth exploring more in depth than the player(s) may realilze.  Forex, I had a MC wizard/cleric in my group.  At a pivotal point in the campaign he forsake the gods, dropped the cleric MC and picked up the bard MC.  He did this for roleplaying reasons and it fit in very nicely with the story.  However, the player never really understood too much why he became a cleric in the first place and it was the weakest point of his character concept.  It just so happened that the next adventure would take them to Hestavar where his ex-deity lived (Erathis).  I knew that to get the most out of this scene I needed to find out more on why he became a cleric in the first place - and so as the players recapped I made note of this.  Aftewards, the next session, I used a technique from the DMG2 that called for a flashback scene, allowing other players to play key roles in the scene and this really helped the player to understand his character even further.  Combining the two techniques - campaign summary/campagin future/character changing moments/character motivation with flashbacks really gave my players a better understanding of their characters and it actually increased roleplaying throughout the rest of the campaign during every single other encounter.  I was pretty amazed by this.  So to summarize, this COULD be viewed as a specific roleplay scene in which there is NO roleplaying at all, just understanding which strengthens roleplaying for the rest of the campaign.  Additonally it only happens as required by the DM or players when direction is needed.NOTE - For those interested in the flashback sequences as something they want to use, be aware that it can feel very clunky at first.  It takes time for players to adjust to being able to tell a scene.  Its going to take quite a bit of practice but over time the technique gets better and better.  Just set everyones expectations to start with and it can be pretty cool.</blockquote>

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